Make that two straight Defender of the Year awards for Columbus’ Chad Marshall. The league announced today Marshall won the award for best defender.

Marshall helped lead the Columbus defense that only allowed 31 goals during the regular season, a record low for the Crew. What’s more impressive is that he only played in 18 games for the Crew this season as he missed a few games with the US National team and a few others to injury.

The Crew won their second straight Supporter’s Shield trophy this season behind the third best defense in the goals-against category. The Crew fell behind both Seattle and Houston for the least amount of goals given up this season.

While I may have not had Marshall as my number one pick for this award (that went to Houston’s Geoff Cameron) he was a very close second for me in the voting. No doubt I have no issues with him grabbing this award for a second straight season as the Crew are certainly better with him on the pitch.

The regular season is done, over, finished or whatever other adjective you want to use. For the second straight season WVH got to participate in the league’s media vote for the season awards. Voting is now over and I felt it was time to share my votes with you all.

I’ll have to admit some awards were tougher to vote on than others but I tried to span the entire season’s body of work as much as I could for these awards. The way you vote for these awards is to give your first, second and third place votes for each. Now I will leave out the lesser awards like best PR from a club and best ref of the year. The rest I will list below.

Robert Warzycha was the best coach fo the year for me. (Getty Images)

Coach of the Year:

1. Robert Warzycha (Columbus): Some will definitely disagree with me on this one and I will be honest I really went back and forth on this award but at the end of the day I had to give it up to a guy that kept things just the way they were and got this club to a second straight Supporter’s Shield trophy. Consistency is key in this league and its even more amazing to see it happen after a coaching change.

2. Sigi Schmid (Seattle): I think anytime you take an expansion team to the playoffs you deserve some big time credit for it.

3. Bruce Arena (LA): I kind of have a feeling he will end up with this award but he didn’t get my top vote but not because he didn’t deserve it. The job he did in LA was definitely one of his best. I am just waiting to see if it turns into a MLS Cup before I call it his best work.

Defender of the Year:

1. Geoff Cameron (Houston): One of the easier award for me to vote on. Cameron was consistent and easily the best defender of the year in my eyes.

2. Chad Marshall (Columbus): Had he stayed healthy through the entire season he would have won back-to-back votes from me for this. It was close but his injuries hurt him I thought for this award.

3. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): The biggest X-factor on that Seattle defense is Hurtado. The guy is that good folks. Continue Reading…

Its that time of the year, the season is nearly complete and the league has handed out it’s ballots for voting for their season awards. Yes today I received an email with a link to my online ballot for voting this year. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to come this week but since the season ends this weekend it makes sense. I suppose I just lost track of time.

Anyways, I’ll have a full rundown next week of who I voted for and why. Not to say that I won’t take some input from you all on these matters. Tonight I wanted to go into another award race that is pretty tight as the one I discussed earlier in the day. The Defender of the Year.

This is another award that is going to be very tightly contested between a number of players. Last year we saw Columbus’ Chad Marshall run away with the award, and while he is in the running yet again for it this year I don’t believe he has completely won everyone over for it this season.

Who exactly do I see in the running? I have a few guys here listed below that I think are all candidates for this award. If you feel I left anyone out just comment below with a good reason and they may get my consideration.

Chad Marshall (Columbus): Yes Marshall is in the running and you got to believe he will get his fair share of votes this season. The thing is his injury issues will keep him off some folks ballots and at the end of it all I kind of doubt he will repeat as Defender of the Year.

Geoff Cameron (Houston): Had the season ended last weekend you could bet Cameron would be the top choice for this award. More than likely we should see Cameron walk away with the award this season for many reasons. He’s been by far one of the most consistent defenders in the league and how sick was the bicycle save last week?

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): Some say Kasey Keller has been the reason why the expansion Sounders have been fairly solid on defense this year but I would argue that it is mostly been due to the play of Hurtado. This winter addition has been one of those that you have to give the Seattle front office credit for because he’s been a total gem of a find.

Wilman Conde (Chicago): About two months ago I would have said he was the top choice for this award but as the Fire have slipped lately so has Conde’s play. Conde is still one of the best defenders in the league but something tells me the in-house issues in Chicago still remain and Conde won’t be there next year.

Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas): One of the reasons why Chivas USA has been near the top all year is due to the consistent play of Bornstein. He missed a decent amount of time this summer with the National team but it hasn’t kept him from picking up the slack when he is with the Goats. The Chivas defense would be nothing without him I think.

Omar Gonzalez (LA): The LA rookie has been very good, so good in fact that he has a shot at two awards (other being rookie of the year).

Others in consideration: Darrius Barnes (New England), Bobby Boswell (Houston), Tyrone Marshall (Seattle). Continue Reading…

With today being the league’s All-Star game it just felt right to go into some award talk. Most of the awards feel like they are going to be decided very late in the year this season. A lot of names in the running for things like the MVP race and the rookie of the year race. Only the comeback award feels like it is all but given out to Chivas keeper Zach Thornton.

For each award I’ll give a quick rundown of guys in the running for the award. Each list is in no real order at this time since it would be almost silly to rank each player (or coach) at this point with so much left to do this season.

Feel free as always to give your thoughts on the awards and who you think should be at the top of each list.

MVP

Players in the running:

• Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus
• Landon Donovan (LA)
• Fredy Montero (Seattle)
• Brad Davis (Houston)
• Shalrie Joesph (New England)

This will be a very tight race if some parties stay hurt (GBS) or are gone for national team games (Donovan). I put Joesph on the list because I’ve always been a fan of how underrated he is in this league. Without him New England would be close to what Dallas and San Jose are right now in the standings. Montero gets on the list because of the excitement he has brought to Seattle this year, and his numbers are really good. Davis is another underrated guy that more people need to look at. Houston wouldn’t nearly be as well run in the midfield if it weren’t for him. Continue Reading…

For most people Chad Marshall was the best defender in the league this year. I may have not voted for the guy but I can’t argue that fact that he was so dominate this year for Columbus. He’s big, physical and a guy that should get looked at for minutes by the US National Team.

Marshall just edged out Kansas City’s Jimmy Conrad and Chicago’s Bakary Soumare.

His stats should speak for themselves. Marshall started and played 29 games during the regular season. He helped the Crew capture their second Supporters’ Shield trophy. Marshall scored four goals in 2008, tied for fifth on the team with striker Steven Lenhart.

Marshall goes down with some of the best defenders in the league history by winning this award. Here are the past winners:

2008: Chad Marshall – Columbus Crew
2007: Michael Parkhurst – New England Revolution
2006: Bobby Boswell – D.C. United
2005: Jimmy Conrad – Kansas City Wizards
2004: Robin Fraser – Columbus Crew
2003: Carlos Bocanegra – Chicago Fire
2002: Carlos Bocanegra – Chicago Fire
2001: Jeff Agoos – San Jose Earthquakes
2000: Peter Vermes – Kansas City Wizards
1999: Robin Fraser – Los Angeles Galaxy
1998: Lubos Kubik – Chicago Fire
1997: Eddie Pope – D.C. United
1996: John Doyle – San Jose Earthquakes

Not bad company really. Congrats to Marshall and the Crew for this award. He definitely deserved it.

MLS released their award finalist today. I was planning on sharing my votes later on this week or early next week but why not today. I was able to vote in this year’s voting through the league (apparently the league enjoys the blogging world out there that cover the sport). My selections are marked in bold. I will release my Best XI later on.

Goalkeeper (Nov. 4 announcement)
Jon Busch, Chicago Fire
Will Hesmer, Columbus Crew
Matt Reis, New England Revolution

Fair Play (Nov. 4)
Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls
Michael Parkhurst, New England Revolution
Chris Rolfe, Chicago Fire

Comeback (Nov. 22)
Jon Busch, Chicago Fire
Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas
Santino Quaranta, D.C. United

Defender (Nov. 6)
Jimmy Conrad, Kansas City Wizards
Chad Marshall, Columbus Crew
Bakary Soumare, Chicago Fire
(I actually voted for Gonzalo Segares, Chicago Fire)

Rookie (Nov. 13)
Geoff Cameron, Houston Dynamo
Kheli Dube, New England Revolution
Sean Franklin, Los Angeles Galaxy

Coach (Nov. 11)
Dominic Kinnear, Houston Dynamo
Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew
Frank Yallop, San Jose Earthquakes

Most Valuable Player (Nov. 20)
Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Chicago Fire
Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Galaxy
Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus Crew

Newcomer (Nov. 11)
Darren Huckerby, San Jose Earthquakes
Claudio Lopez, Kansas City Wizards
Andre Rocha, FC Dallas

A lot of end-of-season awards in Major League Soccer are just as tight as the playoff race. I’ve been tracking the Rookie of the Year and MVP races for some time now but I figured I would weigh in on all the awards for once since we are in the final few weeks of the season.

MLS MVP Award:

1. Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus Crew: His club may be playing well without him but his numbers still make a serious case for MVP this season. He should be back soon, which can only mean his soccer IQ on the field will enhance the Crew even more here.
2. Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy: 19 goals in just 21 games. I think that may be all I need to say here. Earlier I thought his production wasn’t enough for the MVP this year but I am thinking otherwise now.
3. Shalrie Joseph, New England Revolution: He and his club may be stumbling but that should all work itself out once the Revs clinch a playoff spot.
4. Darren Huckerby, San Jose Earthquakes: If this were a half-season MVP I would probably have a tough time picking between Schelotto and Huckerby. Both have been stellar in the second half of the season. Huckerby has only been here for a half season, just think what he can do for a full year.
5. Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls: He’s forth in goals this season in the league but I don’t think that will be enough to get him this award this year.

Others in the discussion:

Javier Morales, RSL; Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago; Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas; Jamie Moreno, DC United; and Sacha Kljestan, Chivas USA.

Continue Reading…